Men's Hockey Opens Season with 2-0 Win Over Yale

Saturday, October 30

Providence, R.I.

7 p.m.

Brown University

1-0-0, 1-0-0

Yale

0-1-0, 0-1-0

Team	1	2	3	F
Yale	0	0	0	0
Brown	1	1	0	2

Men's Hockey Opens Season with 2-0 Win Over Yale

10/30/2021 11:02:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

PROVIDENCE, R.I – The Brown Bears opened the 2021-22 season with a 2-0 shutout win over the Yale Bulldogs Saturday night at Meehan Auditorium. Goaltender Luke Kania recorded 32 saves to record his third career shutout with Nathan Plessis and Jonny Russell finding the back of the net for the Bears.

Postgame: Head Coach Brendan Whittet

"It was a great way to start, we haven't played hockey as a team in well over 600 days," said head coach Brendan Whittet. "There were some ups and downs, which is to be expected, we're excited to be playing hockey and even more excited to get the win."

Plessis got on the board at the 18:10 mark of the first period, banging home a rebound from the initial shot from Samuli Niinisaari. On the play, Cole Quisenberry won the offensive zone faceoff cleanly back to Niinisaari, who moved towards the net and took a shot on Yale goaltender Luke Pearson (23 saves). Pearson kicked the shot out to the net front where Plessis was free for the goal.

Russell doubled Brown's lead at the 17:46 mark of the second period with a great individual play. The junior picked up a loose puck and beelined towards Yale's net down the right side of the offensive zone before slotting a short-side shot over Pearson's shoulder for the unassisted tally.

Kania, who was stellar throughout, turned aside 15 shots from the Bulldogs in the middle frame, including five shots coming on Yale power plays.

"He was very, very good," Whittet commented on Kania. "He was calm, he was solid, he was composed. He made the stops that he was supposed to make. Again, we had a little too much in terms of penalty minutes and have to more disciplined, but the penalty kill responded very well but a lot of that's due to Luke and his play back there."

Brown's defense stood firm in the third period and controlled play more so than in the opening periods, allowing just seven shots to reach Kania. Yale's three power play chances in the final frame yielded just one shot on goal. Brown finished the game with 21 blocked shots.

A penalty-filled game saw 18 minor penalties, three majors, and three game misconducts between the two teams. However, neither team found paydirt on the power play as Yale finished the night 0-for-8 and Brown finished 0-for-6.

Seven Brown skaters played in their first collegiate game against Yale: Tony Andreozzi, Brett Bliss, Brendan Clark, Jackson Munro, Wyatt Schlaht, Matt Sutton, and Jordan Tonelli.

"I thought they all did a great job," Whittet said of the newcomers. "That's what you're going to see with some of the teams that didn't play last year; you're going to have a lot of young guys that are playing a lot of minutes that haven't played college hockey before, I'm impressed with the group that was out there."

Yale finished the game with a 32-25 advantage in shots on goal.

"There's a lot of room for growth, there were good things and bad things, which again, is to be expected early. But I do like the make-up of the team; I think it's a close-knit team, a team that listens, and a team that wants to play hockey the way that we want to play."

Brown hosts Princeton on Friday (Nov. 5) at 7 p.m. and fifth-ranked Quinnipiac on Saturday (Nov. 6) at 4 p.m. Both games will stream on ESPN+. Tickets for next weekend's games can be found here.